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CRIME

Mafia informant’s brother shot dead on Christmas Day

The brother of a Calabrian mafia informant was gunned down by two assailants on Christmas Day in a brutal execution that has raised questions over the Italian police's ability to protect the families of ex-gang members.

Published: 27 December 2018 09:58 CET
Mafia informant's brother shot dead on Christmas Day
The normally quiet town of Pesaro in the Marche region, where the man was shot. Photo: Peter Leth/Flickr

The brother of a Calabrian mafia informant was gunned down by two assailants on Christmas Day in a brutal execution that has raised questions over the Italian police's ability to protect the families of ex-gang members.

Marcello Bruzzese, 51, was shot multiple times by two men with their faces hidden on Tuesday in the normally tranquil historic centre of the eastern port city of Pesaro, where he lived quietly at the expense of the state. 

The killers waited for him near the building where he had lived for three years with his wife and two children. They shot him while he was still inside his car then escaped on foot.

READ ALSO: The Italian mafia is expanding abroad, and European police forces aren’t prepared

According to police and judicial sources, the victim was under state witness protection because his brother Girolamo Bruzzese, known as “Mommo”, was a former member of the feared 'Ndrangheta — the Calabrian mafia — who had collaborated with Italian authorities.

“Mommo” Bruzzese gave himself up to police in 2003 after he shot the powerful Calabrian mafia boss Teodoro Crea, who he had worked closely with, according to the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.

He then went to the Italian authorities, telling them the clan's secrets including its links with local politicians and businessmen, which had led to arrests. 

Crea, the head of one of the most bloodthirsty clans in the Calabrian port town of Gioia Tauro, recovered from his wounds. 

The Bruzzese family is no stranger to the mob. The brothers' father was a senior mafia figure and Crea's former right hand man until he was killed in an ambush.    

Marcello Bruzzese was a young man at the time and was seriously injured in the attack, which also killed his brother-in-law. 

The Christmas Day shooting whipped up criticism of the government’s priorities; especially those of Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who they accused of being preoccupied with social media.

Matteo Salvini (L) and President of the Latium region, Nicola Zingaretti (R) watch the demolition of villas illegally built by the Casamonica mafia clan in of Rome last month. Photo: Filippo MONTEFORTE/AFP

“While the interior minister posted a photo of his meals, a mafia ambush was taking place in Pesaro,” said Pietro Grasso, a senator and respected former anti-mafia magistrate. 

“This is a very serious issue,” he added. “The state dedicates fewer and fewer resources to protection programmes.”  

Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, is due to visit Pesaro on Thursday for a security meeting.  

The interior minister stirred controversy this year by threatening to lift police protection for the anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano — one of his most virulent critics — who has lived under armed guard since publishing his mafia best-seller “Gomorrah” in 2006.

Libera, the country's main anti-mafia association, called for an “immediate and firm” response from the government on Bruzzese's killing.

“The fight against the mafias and corruption cannot suffer from grey areas,” it said, adding that informants were crucial to “weaken” the mafia system. 

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POLITICS

Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

The president of Italy's northwest Liguria region and the ex-head of Genoa's port were among 10 arrested on Tuesday in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation which also targeted officials for alleged mafia ties.

Published: 7 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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